


Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?

by Nihiley_Face



Series: SFW Fics [3]
Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Based off of Moho's Robot AU, Depression, I think?, I've been thinking about this for a while, Just a shitty drabble, M/M, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 06:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14183250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nihiley_Face/pseuds/Nihiley_Face
Summary: [Tord unknowingly causes a world of pain on an innocent machine.]





	Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off of Moho's Robot Tom AU on Tumblr. I've been thinking about this for a while, now, and decided to write a shitty little drabble about it. It's not as good as I'd like for it to be, but it's close enough for now, I guess.

Tord never thought about what he might do if or when his robot actually woke up and worked. 

He never really thought about the curse he might be placing upon an innocent machine when he built it. 

He just wanted to look cool, he guessed. He wanted to seem smart, he wanted people to not hate him. He was so often bullied and considered a nerd in school, that he just had to prove them wrong. He had to prove to them that he was more than some lame nerd; he wanted to show them that he was capable of amazing things. He wanted to prove to them that he was awesome, and he wouldn't stop until he was famous. 

But the price he payed for walking down this dark endeavor was one he wasn't ready or willing to pay, at first. It was a little scary, actually. Tord never knew that he could cause so much pain in someone's life, just by creating them. He didn't know that he was building a person, with their own thoughts, feelings and morals. He was like some sort of cruel God, or a horrible parent. 

Not once did he ever think about how the robot might be feeling. 

But now, boy howdy, he felt awful for what he did. 

To be fair, though, he never expected a robot to gain emotional intelligence. He's seen Short Circuit, sure, but even then, that was a bit of a stretch. Johnny Five was struck by lightning, so he naturally would have been trashed instead of gaining emotions- That's besides the point. Tord cursed a poor creature with life, the ability to learn and a body, and that fucked the poor thing up good and proper. Not to mention Tom's original purpose in life. 

In vulgar phrasing, Tord made himself a sex robot. 

This robot was built to help relieve his sexual frustration, since he wasn't in college anymore and he couldn't just go out and get laid. He had to actually do things, now. It was hard to keep an active sex life when you're a struggling scientist trying to not starve. He was constantly working on eight different projects, hoping to be able to patent one or two and make millions off of his product. He was a young, handsome guy, he was sure that if he got rich, too, he'd get laid much easier. 

Wow, that sounded desperate. 

Well, if you're a skilled scientist who used your abilities to build yourself a sex robot because you can't get laid, then that alone is says enough.

Now that he's looking back on the events that lead him here, he really should have stopped. He kind of knew that bad things would happen if Tom was created. Yet, he still pursued. Why? Because he was as stubborn as a God-forsaken mule, and wanted everyone to know that he wasn't lame. But instead, that just made things worse. And you know what? Tord was lame. He was lame, and stupid, and a fucking weeb. But it didn't matter, now. Tom was gone, all because he was too stupid to realize what exactly was going on with his creation. 

When Tord had introduced Tom to Pau, Pau was clearly discomforted and put off by Tom's mangled-seeming appearance: Wires poking out here and there, messy, synthetic-looking hair, metal skin, etc. He wasn't perfect, Tord knew that, but Tom could walk on his own and talk, hold a human-like conversation, Hell, Tom even told jokes that made Tord laugh! It was mildly terrifying that Tord could build something like this. If you could build a human-like AI that had a terrifyingly human personality, then there was a high likelihood that the same technology could be used to make weapons of all kinds, for example, human-like AI assassins. That was a bit of a scary thought, honestly. 

The first time Tom and Pau met, Tom had over-extended his arm to reach out to Pau from behind Tord. It was a bit shocking at first, and Pau was unsure of what to do, exactly. Tord just kept looking at him with this proud expression. He looked so happy and proud of himself for building something this goddamn cool that Pau just nervously grabbed Tom's hand out of fear of hurting his friend's feelings, somehow. Tom's hand was surprisingly soft. Some sort of nonmetal material, but Pau was wearing gloves, and Tom took his hand back too fast for Pau to analyze it. 

Tom was found to not be very fond of people. He was a little bit anti-social, and didn't talk much. He preferred books and any sort of learning material to people, honestly. But learning material didn't always mean some old war documentary, really. Sometimes, it meant hours and hours of YouTube, and browsing the internet. Tord found Tom to be quite... Relatable, honestly. 

Tom was watching videos of all kinds, learning about human emotions, different cultures, it seemed like he had an addiction to learning. He watched YouTube until his non-eyes bled, and he knew how to make ice-cream in eight different ways (that's also how he learned to break someone's arm in twelve different places. Which was definitely a skill useful in the life of a robot). It actually became like an addiction to him, really. Like a binge-watching addict. 

Tom would binge watch whatever he wanted all the time, no matter what; Netflix shows, (often The Office, both versions, and various cartoons), as well as whatever he could find on YouTube. That lead to Tom discovering Vine and Vines, six or seven second videos on the internet that went viral, originating from the phone application, Vine. Tom enjoyed these videos so much, that he could often be seen observing 'vine comps', and frequently made references to them at the strangest of times. Tord actually found this to be quite hilarious. Tom would enjoy Tord's reaction to Tom's references, and thus make more and more, just to make him laugh. It seemed Tom had a knack for comedy, which was an interesting tool for a robot to have. 

When Tom discovered Twitter, Tord let him have an account. He wasn't exactly sure of what to post, so he tried his best to seem like a funny and relatable human, like most of the other things on there. It was quite amusing to watch him figure it out. He even found Tord's account, and watched videos of Tord either getting absolutely hammered at parties, or saw pictures of his own development, which was almost like a birth video to a human, so he tended to stray from the latter. He did, however, find the former choice to be rather amusing. He enjoyed Tord's reaction to finding these videos on the internet, which mostly consisted of Tord laughing, pinching the bridge of his nose or covering his face in shame completely. 

As it turns out, Tom was quite good at social media. It took a few tries, but he finally learned how to be a human, (on the internet, that is), and gained quite a few followers who enjoyed his weird blurbs of text. Some people followed him because he was an incredibly complicated computer using a much smaller, less complicated computer to post weird things onto the internet, while others followed him for the same reason, but slightly different. 

Since there were other bots out on the internet already, Tom didn't think that he'd seem that much different from the others. He was wrong. His posts were actually coherent and not scripted in any way, and that seemed to amuse people. Tom discovered the value of internet memes, (inside jokes with strangers that you beat until the dead horse stops making them laugh, and then you beat it some more), and gained more of a following. He became relatable, someone people could say 'same' to. He even dabbed a couple of times, which instantly boosted his following each time he did so. 

Now that Tord looks back on it, Tom had more of an underground cult rather than a bunch of followers. But he got verified, and that's what really counts. 

One question Tord had often got was why he left out Tom's eyes when he'd built Tom.

Tord never really answered that one clearly. "I just don't like those fake robot eyes. They're freaky." Is usually what he said when asked. Not that he was lying, those glass eyes were super strange. However, he just didn't elaborate. 

Tord hated those fake robot eyes because it reminds him of just how human his AI actually is. Tom was so human-like that he could have passed as another millennial on the internet, spouting about eating tide-pods and making weird movements with his arms that really resembled sneezing. They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. In this case, since Tom was a robot and not a living being, his eyes would have been dead and empty. He doesn't have a soul, because Tom is a very complicated program. No matter how you program emotions, you can never program a human soul. And those cold, dead robotic eyes in Tom's head would have driven Tord crazy. It reminded him of what could have been, had Tom been a person. Tord might have fallen in love with Tom, had he been born human. But Tom was a robot, and falling in love with his creation was not only cliche, but also really weird. 

Tom's (lack of) eyes just reminds Tord of the fact that Tom is not human, and that he doesn't have a soul, he is not a person, he is a machine. No matter what, it scared him, still.

Though, even if Tom's eyes didn't scare Tord, Tom's actions would have showed his (lack of) humanity in other ways.

How he didn't move naturally. His actions were a bit stiff and awkward at times, and he didn't have skin. There was just cold, hard metal, and the soft bit of his hands, feet and face. Tord remembers he spent hours and hours crafting Tom's admittedly lovely face, but he could have done it better, in all honesty. Had he known what he was doing to an innocent creature who didn't ask to exist, he probably would have made him more human. Made him happier, too. He could have given Tom more humanity by giving him a pair of eyes, even if they didn't look all that natural. He knows that Tom would have accepted it Maybe a little extra light in the back of his eyes to make them glow a bit, and he would have looked more... Alive. Had he put in a little more effort to make Tom a little more human, Tom probably wouldn't have gotten so hurt. Tord honestly shouldn't have been so neglectful.

He would just touch him in the morning, then leave without so much as a goodbye because he didn't think Tom cared. 

Tord would just use Tom up like an object, (even though he technically was one), and then not talk to him, not thank him, nothing. He would make Tom scream, then just leave him. Honestly, if Tord had done that to a person as many times as he did that to Tom, he'd feel guilty. He'd just fuck someone, then never call them back until he was horny again. He shouldn't have used Tom like that. It ended up contributing to Tom's hurt not-psyche. 

He remembers the first time Tom showed him his true colours. It was scary, at first. Tord didn't know what to do, he didn't think a robot would have an existential crisis. After all, he didn't actually program Tom like this. He programmed a salty AI personality, sure, but he did nothing like this. You can try to program empathy, but Tord didn't think that would be right. So, he left it out. However, Tom's ability to learn and grow allowed himself to gain empathy on his own. He observed documentaries a lot, taking in the information from them, albeit most of it with a grain of salt. Tord taught Tom about music, and how powerful it was, and the first time Tom heard a song, he was stunned. He didn't know what to do. So, he absorbed the information and went onto the next one. And the next, and the next, and the next. It became like an addiction. He was always listening to music, and sometimes, he listened to songs over and over while he laid back and listened. 

Tom's ability to learn is what made him human. He learned empathy, he learned joy, but most of all, he learned pain. 

_"What's a soul?"  Tom's head tilted to the side a bit unnaturally, his wide, black eyes staring at him in a painful gaze. Tord swore that sometimes, Tom looked dead inside because of the way he looked at things. "Well," Tord began, unsure of how to answer the question. How to you explain a soul? "It's like the, uh, core of a person, I guess." He started with that. "It's everything a person is, their life-force. It's supposedly the nonphysical essence of someone." He shrugged and hoped that got the point across._

_However, Tom looked more worried now. Tord furrowed a brow. "You alright?" Tom nodded. "Yes, I'm just... Processing that." Tom sat in his little chair across from Tord at the table, silently for a while. Tord wondered what was going on inside his head, and asked. "What are you thinking about, Tom?" Tord leaned forward on his elbows. He was curious as to what the thing he made thought about._

_"Do I have a soul?" Tom asked, looking at him, brows furrowed to show confusion, and a frown on his face. Tord blinked. He took a few seconds to process the question, leaning back. "What?" He asked. "Do I have a soul?" Tom repeated the question, leaning forward, though Tord kept leaning until his back hit the wall. "I, uh," Tord became worried. What did it mean that Tom was asking this? "Do I?" Like a persistent child, Tom continued to ask. He wanted to know, and when Tom wanted to know something, nothing would stop him from getting the answer. "I don't know, Tom." Tord said. "I don't think you have a soul, you're not a living being." Tom looked down, his brows again pressed together unnaturally._

_Tom leaned back in his little chair across from Tord and put his elbows on the table, chin in the metallic palm of his hand. "Tord," He began, not looking up from the spot his dead eyes burned into the table. Tord looked at him, worried. "Yes?" He replied, a little scared of what this next question might be. "What... Am I?" Tord blinked again. "What? What do you mean?" He asked, knitting together his brows. What kind of robot has thoughts like these? "I don't know what I am." Tom said, his voice quiet, his expression riddled with doubt. "What do you mean? You're a robot." Tord said, assuredly. "I know that, but..." Tom paused, attempting to find the right words. It appeared that he didn't know how to make it make sense to Tord. "Who am I?" He looked at Tord, and his big, black eyes made the picture eerie. Tom looked like he would cry, had he the tear ducts to do so._

_When Tord didn't answer, Tom's expression became more pained. "Tord," He said. "Who am I?" Tord was clearly taken aback by the question, leaning back to give himself space to lie. "I don't-" Tord didn't know how to respond to that. Tom looked like he was actually hurting. When someone, a person, asks you a question like that, how do you answer? Tord didn't know what to do, so Tom elaborated, his voice becoming like a small, wounded animal, bleeding out and hurt._

_"I know I'm a robot," Tom said. "I know that I am not a significant part of this world, just an ordinary robot." Tom looked off to the side. He appeared ashamed of that fact. Did he want to be someone special?_ _Tord vaguely wondered if Tom wanted to be something spectacular. Tord thought that Tom already was spectacular, so he didn't see why Tom didn't think of himself that way. It was self-deprecating. Tord thought Tom almost looked human when he looked up at Tord with his hurting expression. "I'm nothing special, not really." Tom's mechanical hands awkwardly clenched into two bone-crushing fists. "But who am I?" Tom looked back at Tord. "Do you know?" Tom looked seriously distressed by now. "Know what?" Tord asked, his confused look becoming more and more worried by the second. "Do you know who I am?" Tom asked. "Do you know what it's like to not know who you are? I mean, I know my name, I know my model number, I know the capital of Argentina, and I can calculate the square root of pi, but I couldn't tell you who I am to save my life; which I technically don't even have, since I'm not human I, as a literal object, am something to own." Tom's admittance of that last statement kind of stung, for the both of them, and it showed:_

_Tom's face scrunched up a bit more, albeit stiffly and weirdly, but it got the point across. He had no other way of displaying feeling, other than this. Tord kind of felt like he was a cruel creator for doing this to him. Tord opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He didn't know what to say. Tom was baring himself to Tord, and Tord had nothing tell him. "I-" Ashamed of having nothing to say, Tord turned his gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry," He said. Tom's head snapped up to Tord, and he pulled his knees to his chest. "I don't know what to tell you." Tord said, feeling like a shitty parent, or something. He tried not to think about it too hard. "You- you're clearly in pain-" Tom looked up to Tord again. "Is that what it is?" He asked. Tord tilted his head to the side. "What?" "Pain," Tom said. "Is that what I'm feeling?" Tord felt bad. Tom didn't even know what he was feeling. Tord didn't sit down and explain to him the complexity of human emotions and the spectrum that they were, because he didn't think that Tom would need to hear it; he thought, because Tom was a robot, he wouldn't understand, so what was the point?  He kind of felt like that was some sort of species-ism, or something like that._

_Tord nodded. "You're feeling pain." He said, a solemn look on his face. Tom looked like he could cry right then, but Tord didn't think he could. "So this is pain?" Tom said, hugging himself tightly in his chair. He grabbed the shoulders of his hoodie so tight, the fabric nearly ripped apart. He buried his face into his knees, despite never being able to know the comfort of the warmth that lay there. "I don't like it." Tom said, his voice sounding duller than usual. Tord looked at him sadly. "People don't usually like pain." He commented._

_Tom was silent for a long time after that._

_It was almost an hour after the conversation, and Tom was still huddled up in his chair, supposedly thinking._

_"Tord?" Tom asked, his voice quiet and small, similar to how he probably felt. Tord looked up from the little machine he was tinkering with and hummed. "Yes?" He asked, pausing on the machine. Tom seemed hesitant to ask his question, as he didn't say anything, and his facial expressions moved around quite a bit. "Tom-" Tord was about to ask him if he was okay, but Tom spoke over him. "Am I a person?" He asked, not looking at Tord._

_And yet another question Tord wasn't ready to answer. No, it's not that he wasn't ready, he just didn't know how to answer it. It was a scary question, for anyone. Tom had feelings, he could feel happiness and joy, he clearly felt pain right now, so what did that make him? Did Tom care about Tord? Or just himself? Why did Tom care? Would answering these questions determine Tom's humanity? What is humanity?_

_Tord stopped himself at that._

_What exactly is humanity? What makes something human? If Tom is a person, then he deserves rights, just like any other person. If he deserves rights, then do other robots? AIs are becoming more and more human like every day, do they deserve rights? What about animals? They clearly have feelings, albeit based on instinct, sure, but they're clearly there. What are these things? Were they human, too? What does it even mean?_

_Tord was silent for a long time, contemplating the complicated answer to Tom's simple question. He looked down at his desk, staring at the trinkets he'd been tinkering with. He made a little robotic spider, just as a toy. Was it a person, too? What did it think? Did it think? Tom was also silent, staring off to the side and refusing to look at Tord. Tord's eyes flickered just a bit up to Tom's, and he wondered what was going on in that motherboard-brain of his._

_Tord thought for a long time about whether or not Tom constituted as human, but those were all legal things, politics. Tom didn't want that. He just wanted to know whether or not Tord thought he was human. Tord looked back up at Tom and smiled at him a little bit. "You know what, Tom?" Tom hummed at him, despondent and tired-looking. "I think you are a person." Tom's head snapped up to look at Tord. Tom appeared utterly shocked, and Tord smiled wider. Tom wasn't expecting that answer, he was expecting the 'no, you're a robot, blah, blah, blah,' answer. Tom's face contorted strangely into something that looked a little bit hopeful. "You think so?" He asked, his voice still quiet. Tord nodded. "You're a person to me." He said, smiling brightly at his robotic friend. Tom held his knees closer to his chest and smiled to himself, not looking at Tord while the neon lights in his cheeks turned on in bashfulness._

_"Thank you, Tord." He said, his voice still small and meek, compared to how it usually is. Tord smiled at Tom and nodded to him. "No problem, Tom." He said, feeling better, knowing that Tom knew he was human. To Tord, at least._

But from then on, it seemed to get worse. 

When Tom wasn't doubting his humanity, he was thinking about people, and what they did. He would often observe Tord and watch his movements while he worked, and sometimes, Tord might catch Tom repeating them. Tord would crack his knuckles, and Tom would try to as well. However, the one time he tried that, Tom ended up breaking his entire hand, and it took a long while to fix. Sometimes, Tom would look himself in the mirror and move around, watch his reflection. It seemed Tom knew how awkward his movements were, sometimes, and apparently tried to fix that by speeding up or slowing down his actions at times. It actually worked a little for some things. It was so interesting to watch Tom learn about himself. 

One time, Tord had gotten a nasty idea, and hoped to sneak up on Tom with it. At the time, Tom was touching his face in different areas for a different feel each time. Tord walked up behind him and smacked his ass pretty hard, thus spraining his hand, since Tord had completely fucking forgotten that Tom wasn't made of flesh, like a person. Tom was made of metal. Including his ass. Tom was a literal hardass. Tom whipped around at the contact, not exactly hurt, but a bit shocked at the sudden feel. He watched as his great and powerful creator withered on the floor like a pathetic, starved animal whipped for wandering around, looking for a scrap of food by the dinner table. Tom watched him apathetically, unsure of what to do, so he just kind of laughed. It was a weird sound to Tord, sure, because it was a bit awkwardly recorded, but good to hear, nonetheless. Tord guessed it was kind of worth being slightly out of service for a while. 

When Tord had to post the news of Tom's destruction, his ~~cult~~ following was actually upset. Well, some of them. The others didn't seem to care, or when they learn how he got destroyed, they just made more memes about it. Go figure. The internet couldn't take anything seriously, these days, could it?

Tord didn't want to look back on it, but it appeared that he had to. 

It all seemed to happen so fast, he was still processing it, even now, after months and months of pondering why and what exactly happened that day. He still felt bad. He should feel bad. His creation killed himself, and it was his fault, really. Everything was kind of his fault. 

Tom had a mental breakdown when he was in his capsule, thinking about things that he knew would send him in a spiral of psychological horror. No matter how many times he tried to stop, he just couldn't. He was doubting his humanity again. Doubting your humanity is one thing if you're born a human. Born not? It was a scary thing to go through. 

Tom tossed and turned in his capsule, uncomfortable in his body. 

Tord approached him and asked him what was wrong. "Nothing, I'm fine." He'd said. Tord didn't believe him. "Tom," He said. "What's wrong?" He reached out and Touched Tom's face, knowing that Tom sometimes felt better when he could feel things, physically. Tom just gave a weird noise in response that could have been a sigh had he a pair of lungs, and he turned away. Tord was a bit taken aback by Tom's actions. Tom had never completely turned away from him. Tord knew that something was wrong with his friend. "Tom?" He asked. "Are you okay?" His voice was gentle. Tom just put the hood of the jacket Tord gave him over his head and he raised his shoulders up to his robotic ears. "I'm fine." He said. Even Tom couldn't be that stupid, right? This was a telltale sign for anyone that someone was not okay. "You're not okay. What's wrong?" Tord pulled up a chair and sat down in it, hoping to get through to Tom. 

Tom just curled up in his capsule further, not responding. "Tom? C'mon, I know you can hear me." Tord said, putting a hand on his shoulder. Tom shrugged him off and Tord pulled his hand back just in time for Tom to shut the capsule completely. He pressed a button and the cover slid on immediately. Tord jumped back at the sudden movement, and frowned. He decided then that he'd give Tom his space for now. He felt kind of bad that he couldn't do anything to help. Had it been one of his human friends, he'd go to comfort food. But Tom didn't eat food, he wasn't a human. He knitted his brows together in mild frustration and sat back at his desk, working on his next project. 

Tom sat in his capsule, stewing in his own juices. It was disgusting and it hurt, but he didn't really want to talk about it. 

He just didn't feel human, and he knew that Tord would never get that. Tom didn't feel like a person. He couldn't eat, he's never smelled anything in his 'life', and he didn't even have that, a life! He wasn't alive. He wasn't real. He didn't matter, did he? Tord didn't really care. Tord just liked his body. Tord just liked to have sex with him because Tord was a desperate man-whore. Tom was programmed to like it, so of course that would make him the man-whore's... Whore. Tom just felt horrible all over. Whore-ible, if you will. Even now, while he's sitting in his capsule, self deprecating and dehumanizing, he still found it in him to make God-awful puns. He buried his face into the small pillow he had. He felt like shit, in every sense of the word. 

Tom has read about humans committing this act called suicide, where they end their own lives out of pain and suffering. They just want it to end, and they don't see a way out. Should Tom do that? He wanted it to end, right? He figured the only way to end the pain was to end himself, right? That was sure to make it stop. Tom figured a good way to end it was to take a shower. That would surely short circuit him into whatever the robotic version of death would be. He hoped it would be peaceful. 

 

Tord's heart was racing as his body was put against the clock. He only had so little time before Tom was completely ruined. His hands shook wildly; he'd never really done well under pressure. His palms began to sweat and coupled with the shaking, he had a bad case of butterfingers on his hands. He breathed heavily, trying not to panic, but it was hard when his friend, and best creation, was going to kill himself. 

Tord was having trouble unscrewing the doorknob to the bathroom door. He left for five fucking minutes, and Tom decides to kill himself. This is what he gets for trying to be the cool guy for once. The screwdriver slipped out of his hands again, and he just slammed his fist onto the door in panic. "TOM!" He yelled, trying to catch Tom's attention, trying to appeal to Tom's will to live. Tom didn't reply, and Tord got a sickening feeling in his gut. Tears brimmed Tord's eyes as he picked up the screwdriver once more. "Stupid door!" He hissed as he finally managed to get the last screw out. He whipped the door open as fast as he could to get to Tom, but...

Tom's limp body lay in the tub, his right arm hanging out, while his legs were bent at the knees. He lay on his back, with his left arm resting on his chest. His black eyes didn't close, they were half lidded. His painfully cheap, synthetic hair was soaked, sticking to the bathtub floor. Little sparks of electricity sprung from Tom's body in various places, and Tord made sure not to go near it. Tord felt his body go lax at the sight. He fell to his knees, feeling like a failure. His lip quivered pathetically, and he let out a sad whimper. Tord just didn't know what to do, anymore. Tom was essentially dead, now. He could do nothing more but cry. 

So he did. 

Tord sat on the bathroom floor by the body of his creation and he cried for a while. He called Pau to tell him what happened, and Pau came over pretty soon afterwards. What were they going to do? Call the police? This wasn't a human's body, they didn't care. Tord just couldn't, anymore. He hugged Pau tight, and told him that he should be glad he was born human. Told Pau that he should be thankful that he wasn't some poor robot that never wanted or asked to exist. Pau didn't quite get what Tord was saying, but tried his best to comfort him, anyways, even if he wasn't good at it. 

Pau managed to help Tord get the water off and Tom's body out of the tub. They dried him off and sat him on the table that Tom was built on. Pau didn't really know what to say. He couldn't say he didn't see something like this coming. A robot- people like Tom were hard to come by, and when you did find one, they often died young. Tom was barely a few years old, actually. Who knew so much could happen to someone at such a young age?

Tord looked at Tom's body from a safe distance as it zapped and shocked a little bit more, as if a testament to his tiny will to live. 

Tord recalled Tom saying that he didn't have a life, that he wasn't alive. Tord didn't believe it. Most people probably wouldn't have thought of Tom as a living being, but Tord did. Tom mattered. He was a person. Tom was a human being with feelings. People on the internet didn't really believe it, even if they liked him. Politicians would be afraid of him, like Tord was at first, and would attempt to dehumanize him. But Tord knew. Tom was human. He was just wasn't born in the body that most humans were born in. 

Tom was a little different, but that didn't make him any less human. 

That's why Tord would do better this time. 

Tord had managed to save Tom's hard drive, recovering most, if not, all of the information that Tom held in that wonderful little brain of his, and kept it in a computer for safe keeping. While he let Tom's code run it's course that way, he started to build. 

Tom had an actual skeleton, now. And while the skin wasn't real, human skin, (because that would be creepy on so many different levels), it was silicone, and that was pretty damn close, right? He wasn't even close to finished, yet, but he was getting there. Tom had a proper skeleton, now, too. His wires were going to be far more discreet than they used to be. Tom used to have wires popping out everywhere, and it looked awkward and strange, but now? He was starting to look like a proper person. Almost like those androids from  _Chobits_ , that one robot anime with the really bad English dubbing. Tord remembers that Tom liked that one, quite a bit, and found himself relating to Chi, which Tord lowkey found really cute. 

His hair was far more realistic, and, while he still couldn't smell or taste things, his sensory pads were far more sensitive, to the point that they probably felt better. If not, it was easily adjustable from Tord's main computer. 

Tord was unsure whether or not he should give Tom eyes. Would he feel more human with them? Were Tom's plans to  _be_ human? To blend in? He recalls Tom saying he kind of liked his black eyes. Tord wasn't sure whether or not to keep them. He made a pair of eyes for Tom, just in case he wanted them when he woke up again. 

Tord realized that it wouldn't be easy. Rebuilding Tom from scratch was already going to be difficult enough. He had to stop working on all other projects just to make him again, but Tord knew that it would be worth it. He snagged a couple jobs, one as a bartender, another as a librarian. So, when he had a bit of down time in the library, he could do more research on how to make Tom more human like. 

Not to mention that Tom might be upset with Tord if he remembers what happened. Tom's recovery will be difficult. But Tord was stubborn as a God-forsaken mule and he'd be damned if he gave up on Tom now. 

Tom wasn't even close to being finished, and thinking about finishing him made Tord's heart beat fast. He almost couldn't wait, but he knew he had to. He just needed some patience. Just a little more patience, and Tom would be whole again. 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @ daddy-issues-anon.tumblr.com  
> You can find Moho's blog @ moho-roselemonade-and-cockcade.tumblr.com


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